Making the Grade: UMLC Division II

University of St. Thomas : 2013 (17 – 0)(5 – 0)

A | The Tommies have a decent schedule, but we kinda expected more DI competition from a program that’s been dominating DII for years. It looks like they are hoping for a jump to DI after testing the waters against Minnesota and MSU-Mankato the past few seasons, and they might follow Westminster’s path. There isn’t a lot of road threat, but the three game stretch in Indiana against Tech, Dayton and SCAD will be a huge weekend for the MCLA DII. The rest of season in state, which has us expecting them to finish on top of the conference and make another title run this season.

St. John’s University : 2013 (13 – 3)/(2 – 1)

A- | The Johnnies almost have an exact replica of NDSU’s schedule, the only exceptions are the MO Bap/DePaul games. It’s going to be a long season, playing most of their games on the road except game against St. Thomas at end of season. Expect their standing to go back and forth with NDSU until the last game of the season, it could be the year either team could jump UST. It’s going be a close season.

North Dakota State University : 2013 (7 – 6)/(3 – 2)

A- | Going up against quite a few teams that all made playoffs last year is impressive. Conference schedule will be played on road except last game against St. John’s but it shouldn’t be an issue for them. Similar schedule to the past few years, we look forward to see how they do against St. John’s. They tend to lose by 1 during the season and fall apart during the playoffs. Will that change this year? We’re betting on it.

Bethel University : 2013 (4 – 5)/(2 – 3)

B | It’s fair to see Bethel taking on some evenly matched competition. They don’t have much road threat with only three games out of state, two in MO and one in IL. The competition they face out of state will be pretty tough but we expect them to finish in the same spot they did last year, unless they have something up their sleeve this season.

St. Olaf College : 2013 (1 – 8)/(0 – 4)

C | Olaf is sporting a short schedule in comparison to the rest of conference. It’s good to see a nice mix of competition, but most of their competition is evenly matched. They see only two true home games at the very end of the season with not a lot of road threat having just two games out of state. A last place finish is expected this season, but they should be able to pick up more than one win.